A variety of mobile computing devices exist, such as personal digital assistants (PDAs), mobile phones, digital cameras, digital players, mobile terminals, etc. (hereinafter referred to as “mobile devices”). These devices perform various functions specific to the device, and are often able to communicate (via wired or wireless connection) with other devices. A single mobile device may, for example, provide Internet access, maintain a personal calendar, provide mobile telephony, and take digital photographs. These mobile computing devices may also be capable of receiving broadcasting services and multi-media content distributed by such broadcasting services.
Digital broadcast technologies using standards such as DVB-T (Digital Video Broadcast-Terrestrial) are rapidly expanding in various countries around the world. Other standards such as DVB-MHP (Digital Video Broadcast-Multimedia Home Platform) and DVB-H (Digital Video Broadcast-Handheld) are taking the DVB-T standard further by enabling digital content providers to address all types of terminals ranging from low-end to high-end set top boxes, integrated digital TV sets and multimedia PCs. In addition, the standards provide for the reception of digital broadcasting with handheld devices. The DVB transmission technology (also known as IP datacasting) may also be combined with Internet Protocol (IP). The combination makes it possible to transfer digital content as IP packets. IP datacasting offers the advantage that all existing IP-based digital content such as video streams, web pages, music files, or game software may be distributed over a mobile broadcast. IP datacasting for mobile devices, as compared to traditional broadcasting, creates a variety of advantages over traditional broadcasting systems such as the transmission of additional services over the same channel.
Various portable devices, however, have different capabilities as numerous portable devices are designed for specific applications and/or services. For instance, a user may play games on his/her mobile telephone. The games, however, may have been originally designed to be played on a particular handheld gaming device. The handheld gaming device may have been designed with a specific button or input configuration in order to optimize playing of the game or application. As another example, a mobile communication device may be able to receive digital television broadcasting. However, the mobile communication device may not be capable of utilizing value added services such as a Text-TV service due to the configuration of the controls or keys on the mobile communication device. A user of a portable device, however, should be able to receive the service and/or application in a seamless fashion and be able to utilize such service and/or application with the specific button or input configuration of the portable device.
Therefore, for these and other reasons, there remains a need by which a user can efficiently use the input configuration of a portable device with various different applications and/or services.